Sunday 27th September 2026 saw the first ever mixed gender match between the two recently merged counties of Cheshire and Lancashire.
Lancashire were very kind hosts for this inaugral fixture and even organised the weather.
Six boys and six girls from each County set off playing mixed foursomes in the morning and singles matches in the afternoon.
Sadly the handicaps of Cheshire’s foursomes pairings were not as strong as the Lancashire ones as their girls had some extrememely low handicaps, but everyone gave it a good go and whilst James Clark and Yasmine Chambers managed a half in their match it wasn’t until the final green when Jack Walker and Isobella Donnelly managed to get a full point for Cheshire.
The afternoon singles started with a fine win for Joshua Hockenhull followed by wins for Shane Clayton and halves for Missy Green and Harvey Taylor, who eagled the last hole to bring his match back to all square. The win of the day award goes to Isobella Donnelly who was only asked to play on Saturday due to a late withdrawal due to flu of another girl. Isobella completed her successful morning with a fine win on the 15th green. But by then, Lancashire had enough points and the final match ended with Jack Walker securing a half to see the final score 11:7 to the hosts.
Lancashire did a wonderful job of the presentation after hesitation as to whether to do it inside or outside, but with so many parents there to see the first ever presentation of the Ruth Whitehead/Les Wilson Salver they sensibly opted to do it in the sunshine outside.
Les made a great speech and kept it very short, and next year we are hoping to have both Ruth and Les there and hopefully Cheshire can use home advantage to help them win in 2027.